Ryoga Hibiki²

Ryoga's usual attire consists of a yellow and black mottled bandana around his head, a long-sleeved yellow tunic with a pale yellow collar and folded sleeves, black pants with yellow bands around the legs, a black belt, and pale yellow socks. He is sometimes shown wearing a pale yellow sleeveless shirt and dark blue pants. His hair, usually the front, is quite long, hiding his bandana behind it. Very often, Ryoga carries a black backpack and a red bamboo umbrella either tucked into straps on top of his backpack or in his hand. Ryoga physically resembles Ranma, except for his eye color, hairstyle, fangs, and his distinct attire.

Before he was cursed into his P-chan form, he was seen wearing a sleeveless indigo shirt with matching pants, and a pale yellow scarf.

In his P-chan form, when splashed with cold water, Ryoga's clothes fall off and he appears as a small black pig with the yellow, mottled scarf around his neck.

Ryoga is introduced in chapter 10 of the manga, titled "The Hunter", and in episode 7 of the anime, "Ryoga, the Forever Lost Boy Appears", in which he accidentally stopped a giant boar from attacking a rural village. He politely asked for the location of Furinkan High School, but it turned out that he had gone 500 miles (800 km) south, and he had to go the 500 miles (800 km) north. A week later, he finally arrived at his destination and attacked Ranma Sotome. Ranma had trouble recognizing him, but was pleased to see him when he remembered Ryoga as an old friend from his old boys' school (Junior High in the anime, High School in the manga). At first, it seemed that Ryoga held a grudge against him because Ranma "ran away" from their agreed-upon duel rendezvous point, a vacant lot located 500 yards (460 m) from his house. His poor sense of direction forced him to wander all over Japan for four days in search of his destination, but Ranma only waited for him three days before leaving for China to train with his father. Ranma believed Ryoga's motivation stemmed from him always beating Ryoga when they competed for the last piece of bread at lunch, slowly forming a grudge against him.

Ryoga ended up traveling a week for the next duel. During their confrontation, Ryoga discovered Ranma's curse, and then accidentally cut Akane Tendo's hair when Ryoga threw his belt-blade at Ranma, for which both boys apologized.

Afterwards, Ryoga attacked Ranma again one rainy night, Little Ranma found out that Ryoga went to China, and concluded that the reason for his anger was because he was cursed by the Jusenkyo hot springs. Later Ranma found a dog after Ryoga got wet by the rain, so he assumed it was Ryoga and let it into the house, while Akane found a suspicious little black pig in his room and treated a bruise he had. Akane asked Ranma to bathe the piglet, but when she put it in the hot tub Ryoga appeared and revealed that he went to China to find him, but one day he was pushed by a girl into the Drowned Pig Hot Spring and then a panda almost cooked and ate him, and blamed it all on Ranma. Ranma the girl managed to convince him that he should be angry with the girl and the panda, but it turned out to be Ranma in his female form while he was chasing his father Genma Saotome in his panda form, which enraged Ryoga even more. Akane decided to adopt the piglet and named him P-Chan, unaware that he was actually Ryoga and that he had fallen madly in love with her.

After this, Ryoga frequently returns to Nerima, either to challenge Ranma for revenge for his Jusenkyo curse, bring Akane pastries and gifts as tokens of affection, or simply involve himself in his rival's affairs and troubles. His antagonism towards Ranma gradually lessens over time. Their relationship began as a violent rivalry, with them having intense competitions, uneasy alliances, or minor conflicts, and after a brief decline, developed good enough terms that he would risk his life to help Ranma repeatedly. Nevertheless, they remained very competitive. Ranma considers Ryoga "just a friend in general."

Ryoga has collaborated with Mousse on a few occasions to obtain the cure for his curses during the Musk Saga, and they considered racing together during an onsen race. He and Tatewaki Kuno also briefly teamed up against Ranma when they became enraged after seeing a photograph of Ranma kissing Akane, and for a brief second during an eating contest. In the anime, the two attacked Ranma in "The Grand Plan: Ukyo's Skirts!". They also teamed up in "How Annoying! The Happosai Six" and prevented Ranma and Akane from getting together in "Let's Go to the Mushroom Temple". They also both beat up Ranma in the OVA "The Curse of the Reversal Jewel". However, in the manga, Ryoga is not a distant friend, and is on better terms.

Ryoga stands out among people due to his generally gruff appearance. He spends most of his time wandering around, usually depressed from spending so much time alone in the region, with a sudden downpour turning him into a helpless piglet at the mercy of hungry humans or animals. His most notable characteristic is that, like his parents, and even his entire family, he has no sense of direction. He is unable to understand simple directions or draw legible maps, once running in the wrong direction at the start of a three-legged race and getting lost in Shampoo's house for hours looking for the exit.

This isn't due to a lack of motivation, however. For example, on the way to a date, he was supposed to follow the shore of a lake to reach a statue directly in front of him. Instead, Ryoga followed a stream and got lost again. In the anime, Maomolin the bakeneko possessed Ryoga and tried to lead him to the girl he loves. However, Maomolin had many navigational problems, according to Ryoga himself, though the former was the one he thought.

In real-world terms, he would be classified as suffering from an autistic disability or brain damage in this area. It's also possible that his lack of sense of direction is a kind of family curse. Another theoretical possibility is that the Hibiki family suffers from an inflamed or infected hippocampal gland. This gland is the human biological compass, carrying the sense of direction and orientation along with short-term memory.

In the anime, this condition is worsened by Ryoga's ability to travel long distances in a very short time on foot, though he is unaware of this. When both problems combine, it results in Ryoga having no idea where he is, causing him to miss destinations by crazy margins. In one instance, he attempted to reach Hokkaidō and ended up in Okinawa instead. Fortunately, he carries a backpack, which evidently contains essential items for survival in the wilderness.

In the manga, he is not heavily implied to have a supernatural talent, at least not beyond his comical tendency to end up at odd moments. He seems to require much more travel time, and is not actually shown to speed across continents at will. However, during his first appearance, he zipped across Tokyo for 500 miles (800 km) twice, apparently lasting one or two days, though no exact explanation is given. He also, using the Kinjakan, reached Moscow from Jusenkyo very quickly and a short while later went to get some dumplings in Beijing. His map was also once shown to contain a forest, a cafe, a road with a red car on it, the Tendo dojo, African tribesmen, China, and France, and he once sent Akane a postcard that included a photograph of him speeding across Okinawa.

Ryoga's family home overlooks Mount Fuji, where his dog Shirokuro and her puppies live. However, due to the family's condition, Hibiki, it is usually empty. Ryoga generally leads a nomadic lifestyle, and only occasionally manages to find her. His dog, however, has less trouble finding her way and recognizes him in both his human and pig forms. Ranma has been mentioned as helping Ryoga get to his home when they attended the same high school.

The combination of his poor sense of direction and his curse has regularly subjected Ryoga to impending misery, constantly placing him alone and lost in the region, with few food rations, or at the mercy of hungry predators. During his first appearance, Ryoga was a very angry and seemingly unapproachable individual. Ryoga is emotional, usually following his heart rather than his head, though he has shown the ability to use strategy when focused or lacking distractions. He is emotionally fragile, sincere, and naive. He regularly feels depressed, which serves as the source of his chi projection. He is generally shy, humble, and courteous, especially towards women. He is often easily deceived and used by some manipulative characters, and becomes extremely grateful, loyal, and self-sacrificing toward any act of kindness offered to him.

A recurring comic is that whenever Ranma (the girl) disguises herself, no matter how transparent the disguise, Ryoga is completely fooled. Ranma uses this as an advantage to spy on whatever training Ryoga is doing, to annoy, or torment Ryoga during a date with Akane in order to destroy the latter's prospects.

Ryoga's solitary wanderings make him quite desperate for affection, to the point where a hug from Akane as his pet P-Chan was his only way to obtain any kind of warm human contact, and he went wild with happiness when she cuddled up to him like a teddy bear or kissed him on his muzzle. However, overall, he doesn't seem remotely lecherous, and will be greatly embarrassed by merely daydreaming about innocent dates or holding hands. When possessed by an Oni, the most evil thing he could conceptualize was spying on Akane in the bathroom, and afterward he was utterly mortified with embarrassment. Even being hugged by Akane can cause the shy Ryoga to get a nosebleed and faint. He didn't enter the girls' locker room with Ranma even though they believed there was a Jusenkyo cure for them there, until Ranma threw him out and promptly turned away in the opposite direction from where some girls were changing. P-Chan is frequently present when the Tendo/Saotome family is talking or involved in something, sometimes sitting on Akane's lap. Ranma, Genma, and Happosai know about Ryoga's curse, but seemingly don't consider it a problem. Cologne, Shampoo, Mousse, Soun, and many supporting characters also know about his curse, but as a running gag, Akane never finds out.

His pig form tends to show more openly when he's sad or needs comfort. The curse may also be age-specific, given that it remained unchanged when he became a child due to the "time mushrooms."

Ranma has been shown to be mostly very considerate regarding Ryoga's curse, likely because he was the one who caused it, out of pure compassion, and possibly due to a "warrior" code of silence sworn to the dog he initially thought was Ryoga. While Ranma is initially willing to threaten to expose Ryoga's secret to Akane, he eventually discovers that Ryoga sees himself as Akane's protector even in her near-helpless P-Chan form and endures her regularly violent nighttime movements to keep her safe and happy, and helped prevent her from drowning even in this state. He has generally tried to keep Ryoga's curse a secret from Akane since, through actions such as catching him as he is about to fall into water, changing the direction of Akane's head, and making up excuses and explanations. He felt sad for his rival when Akane seemed to have discovered Ryoga's secret (when she saw Ryoga's ribbon in his hands, which is also the scarf P-Chan wears around her neck, and an empty teapot), and tried to explain to her that "Ryoga never meant to hurt her", when in reality "P-Chan" drank the hot water from the teapot, ran away, and dropped her scarf. However, he still likes to tease Ryoga by using this as a joke and sometimes puts his foot in it, such as when he honestly tried to convince Pantyhose Taro that it is possible to live with a curse also using this as a comfort to Ryoga, without considering that Akane was nearby. However, he will sometimes tease or play with the piglet, even juggling it with his feet, which may cause it to try to hit him after it bites his hand in retaliation.

The only time Ryoga is shown to be somewhat lecherous occurs near the end of the manga. When he turned into a little boy, and Ranma introduced him to Akane, he was hugged and very shyly accepted her offer to sit on her lap. When she offered to let "Ryouga's brother" take a bath with her, he initially protested but later reconsidered, before being stopped by Ranma, strongly contradicting his characterization in all his previous appearances, possibly explained by him having lost some of his temper due to meeting Akari. Making it even more interesting, Akane wasn't even the least bit upset when she found out the boy was Ryoga, making it questionable whether she would mind finding out P-Chan's secret since nothing too serious had happened to the piglet.

Fighting Ability: Ryoga is an exceptionally capable martial artist, roughly comparable to Ranma Saotome, whom he has defeated or come to a draw with on several occasions, especially in short or off-screen battles. He has triumphed roughly twice, as the other occasions have been the opposite, if these are included (moments of advantage and weakness excluded), occasionally in seconds when he is sufficiently annoyed or similarly motivated, but he has also been at a severe disadvantage on one occasion when Ranma was more focused while Ryoga was extremely agitated. He has even been distracted or tricked by Ranma at times to triumph in a climactic moment. Unlike the other cast members, Ryoga appears to be more self-taught, with immense natural talent, and reckless hard training as his only mentor. Takahashi mentioned in an interview that the reason for his great power lies in his life of constant hard trekking.

Physical Strength: Under normal circumstances, he appears to possess slightly less physical strength than Ranma. They have never directly competed in this area, as Ranma tends to rely on skill and special techniques. Ryoga's greatest explicit feat occurred during his ice skating competition. When highly motivated, Ryoga moved two enormous blocks of floating ice (to trap/stop Mikado Sanzenin) and, even more impressively, he was shown throwing at least one of them, weighing approximately 206 to 642 metric tons, at least 30 meters, using the arm that previously grabbed it. Here, he used Ranma's head as a brace to keep from falling into the water, however, the latter was supported by the pressure of the floating slabs. However, to throw such a weight such a great distance would require a dozen efforts with simple pulling. As with his chi generation, he seems to be subject to an impulse based on his emotional state, beyond his general level of consciousness, and (like most of the Ranmaverse's combatants) this strength seems to be his general power source, but he has apparently never used its full capacity directly due to the autonomy of his physical traits, whose indirect and scattered use has been shown to eclipse even Cal in terms of raw power. For more comparative references, Ranma once broke his legs due to the effort of standing on a 50-100 meter fall while carrying four girls. Furthermore, the latter was probably still very weakened by the poison at the time, so his effort was greatly multiplied. Ranma also proved unable to get out when trapped under a large 90 or 100 ton iron bell.

without difficulty, but was not significantly motivated, and had no grip on his hands. Ranma the younger girl seemingly effortlessly managed to propel a 40-ton boulder into the mouth of the Yamata-Orochi while swimming underwater, when she was supremely determined to prevent Akane from being devoured. Furthermore, when under the influence of a magical incense, a simple hug from Ryoga nearly crushed Ranma's ribs. Other hints in this regard include Ryoga appearing overwhelmingly stronger than Ranma when he was posing as his "sister", to the point that he nearly knocked him out when he playfully poked his forehead, but Ranma was in his female form at the time. However, the difference in muscle strength between a man and a woman does not differ to this degree. Akane was terrified of his occasional power, while she did not react this way towards Ranma, though Ranma simply had better muscle awareness control. He was also chosen as Lime's counterpart, but this may have simply been due to his greater ability.

Notable Strength: Other demonstrations of his strength are that he is able to throw a solid rock platform 7 m in diameter, and send Ranma flying at most 4 m in diameter, or at least 0.5 m deep, from the indentation in a mountain. Durability: Ryoga also appears to possess great durability, honed through years of training in the mountains and through Cologne's Point Break training. Though it is possible that this is simply a more exaggerated trait for his counterpart. He has repeatedly been struck with heavy and dense objects, fallen hundreds of meters onto solid rock, been embedded in a landslide, and even fallen into a closing chasm, emerging unharmed and ready to fight. He was knocked out by a heavy blow from Taro's monster form, while a similar effort failed to render Girl Ranma unable to fight. He too was struck by a wall and left in a state of confusion about the latter's transformation. Ranma was briefly shocked only on one other occasion when not restricted by these limitations. Ryoga was only mildly frightened when hundreds of Ranma's punches were thrown in less than a second, despite repeated efforts, and put them both into free fall, presumably giving the latter a chance to instead throw thousands of punches, all aimed at a single target, which together managed to knock him out. He was even apparently unharmed after he and Ranma were hit by Happosai's deadly Happo-Daikarin, after which he was able to knock out Taro-monster with a single attack while rendering his opponent unconscious, though the strength of the blows varies greatly depending on the occasion.

Limitations: Ryoga seems much more vulnerable if he is distracted and his guard is completely down, so it is not impossible that his durability is enhanced by the active chi infusion. Lime was able to hit him at full strength using that opportunity, after Mint attacked Ryoga from behind, and the latter got angry at Mousse for not keeping their fighting edge. He was also knocked out by an unexpected blow from Mousse's larynx, while he was completely focused on Ranma, who managed this feat. For example, by flashing Ukyo's breasts to Ryoga, paralyzing him in embarrassment and, after that, kicking him into a school wall, or by bashing the embarrassed Ryoga's head into a stone pillar from behind, when the latter closed his eyes, having been tricked by Shampoo into believing that he was about to be kissed by Akane. Speed: Though initially, even during a fight, Ranma briefly gains a strong advantage in speed and skill after being subjected to grueling combat against Cologne, Ryoga quickly catches up in this area as the manga progresses. By the time of the "Weakening Moxibustion" arc, he is able to simultaneously dodge, disarm, and strike Mousse, Tatewaki, Principal Kuno, and Gosunkugi in under a second. He is also shown to be faster than Mousse a few volumes later during an onsen race battle, where he dodged all of the latter's attacks. Furthermore, when Ranma became horribly jealous because of the Love Fishing Rod, Ryoga managed to dodge the latter's training Amaguriken augmented by a supersonic barrier, and later outperformed his rival. In a battle with the physically stronger and highly durable Lime, he easily managed to stay out of his opponent's reach until Mint interrupted him. In the last story, he effortlessly managed to dodge all of Genma-panda's blows, while looking in another direction.

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